Determination of arsenic content of some Romanian natural mineral groundwaters

Romania is one of the countries that have natural arsenic groundwater problems. This paper presents the results of a study of arsenic concentration monitoring in natural mineral waters collected from 23 sampling sites located in the northern, central, and western regions of Romania. The sampling sites are both natural springs and drilled wells. The graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry was used for arsenic content determination. The Piper's classification principle was applied in order to find out the hydrochemical type of the analyzed waters. Depending on the concentration of arsenic, the water analyzed can be classified into three main categories: (1) mineral natural waters containing less than 10 μg/L arsenic, (2) mineral natural waters containing arsenic at concentrations several times higher than the limit of 10 μg/L but less than 100 μg/L, and (3) mineral natural waters containing arsenic at concentrations of ten to a hundred times higher than the allowed limit of 10 μg/L. The last-mentioned waters are of bicarbonatate sodium type and were sampled from seven sources only, being prohibited for human and animal use.